Watch Tower Society Research Articles

ПЕРШІ КРОКИ ПРОПОВІДНИЦЬКОЇ АКТИВНОСТІ ЧАРЛЬЗА ТЕЙЗА РАССЕЛА

This study is aimed at outlining the context of the first preaching company of Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Watch Tower Society, and the religious movement International Bible Students, which today is called the religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. As a result of the study, it was found that in the first half of 1870, Charles Russell and a group of like-minded people, through Bible studies, came to certain conclusions that became the basis of their doctrinal system. During this same period, independent Adventist minister Nelson Barbour and his followers were identified as rethinking the idea of Christ's second coming after their disappointment in 1874. They found the theological basis for a new view that Christ's return had actually occurred, but in an invisible manner. It has been established that the common belief in the invisible manner of Christ's return became the reason for the acquaintance of Charles Russell and Nelson Barbour in 1876. This encounter made Charles Russell open to the importance of studying the prophetic periods of the book of Daniel. It was found that the basis of the interpretation of the prophetic scheme, which he got acquainted with and accepted, was the edited scheme, which was professed by the participants of the movement of William Miller in the 1830s–1844. It is revealed that the new convictions, the realization that the time for the fulfillment of events before the arrival of the Millennial Kingdom has come, prompted Charles Russell to take active action in preaching, for the accomplishment of which he spent his time and money. As a result of the religious activities of Charles Russell and his employees, a significant number of US states were covered by preaching. Because the religious leaders of the day did not agree with the idea of the invisible return of Christ in 1874, Charles Russell's preaching work faced great resistance. At the same time, some noted his positive personal qualities: confidence and courage in public sermons.

Le Fort I maxillary osteotomy in a Jehovah\u2019s Witness patient: strategies for minimizing blood loss and maximizing safety

BackgroundThe Watch Tower Society, the main governing organization of the Jehovah’s Witness (JW) faith, introduced the doctrine to refuse blood in 1945 and has been enforcing it since 1961. A member can be expelled for accepting prohibited blood components. Many reconstructive surgeries place patients at an increased risk for blood loss. There have been attempts at reducing the rate of transfusions in craniofacial surgery, even in patients not opposed to it.PresentationA 15-year-old female patient, who refused blood transfusion due to her faith, presented with a class III malocclusion, transverse maxillary constriction, and a lateral open bite. Surgery was deferred until the patient reached 18 years of age and had undergone preoperative orthodontics. A two-piece Le Fort I osteotomy was performed. Erythropoietin, oral iron, and tranexamic acid were used to minimize intraoperative blood loss.ConclusionHere we discuss preoperative and intraoperative management strategies to ensure a transfusion-free environment for patients with religious objections to blood transfusions undergoing operations with increased bleeding risk.

Religious Views of Charles Taze Russell and their Reflection in the Teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses

The article examines the religious views of the founder of the Watchtower Society, Charles Taze Russell, and their influence on the development of the doctrinal system of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The role of a religious leader in the eyes of his followers is described. The doctrines concerning the nature of the Divine, the name of God, human nature, the state of the dead, hell, the second coming of Christ, immortality and eternal life are illuminated. It has been established which views of Russell remained unchanged in the doctrines of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and which underwent a certain correction.

Secret Operations of the Soviet Security Services against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ukraine (1949—1955)

This article reconstructs the history of one KGB operation against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ukraine, launched by the Ukrainian security services in 1951. The operation aimed to infiltrate the Jehovah’s Witness underground organization in Ukraine and to organize a Witness country committee as a covert operation. The plan was designed such that the Soviet security service became the head of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, and the headquarters of the official Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society became a channel in their counter-intelligence operations. This article tells about the failures and unexpected side-effects of the secret operation caused by internal conflicts within the Soviet politics of religion. Paradoxically, in the context of a disintegrated Witness underground network, caused by the post-war deportations and mass arrests, severed communication channels with the Watch Tower Society and the absence of religious literature, the Soviet security service became an alternative communication channel between the faith communities and a source of religious reproduction (including the source of the production of Watch Tower literature). This study dwells upon historical materials from recently opened SBU (former KGB) archives in Ukraine.

PRZYGOTOWANIE DO ŻYCIA MAŁŻEŃSKIEGO I RODZINNEGO W UJĘCIU ŚWIADKÓW JEHOWY

The article presents Jehovah’s witnesses’ moral teaching on the subject of preparation formarital and family life. According to Jehovah’s Witnesses, proper preparation for a married life andfamily forecasts good prospects for the future, people in personality development and tread breedingof a moral and religious attitude. Man realizes himself when his relationship does not change. Dulyconceived moral principles sensitize people to the problems they enter in fiancée relations. Issuesregarding the selection of future reasonable, non-misplaced love. Jehovah’s Witnesses show thedifference between infatuation, and the true love of the other person. In the modern era, manybrides explain common sexual conditions and obligations as something normal. Paradoxually thesins of people’s connections. The elders of the congregation did not begin to drink in connectionwith another thing. In the pages of the Watchtower Society articles, the issue of the contraceptionproblem leaves the objections. All behavior is unacceptable. The constant motif that is repeated inlearning Jehovah’s Witnesses provides self-esteem for self-satisfaction and directing trials to theCreator. Only Jehovah’s intervention can help to preserve the patterns of moral life.

The History of the Jehovah's Witnesses: An Appraisal of Recent Scholarship

Zoe Knox's analysis of the English‐language historiography of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was published in this journal in 2011. It assessed four types of historical writing on the organisation: the Watch Tower Society's own publications; material produced by two categories of detractors, namely ex‐Witnesses and Christians writing from other denominational perspectives; and academic studies. There are vast quantities of all but the last of these. Her article thus concluded with a call for scholars to take this religious community more seriously as an historical subject, echoing an appeal made by Rodney Stark and Laurence Iannaccone to social scientists in 1997. This review essay is intended to supplement Knox's historiographical analysis by appraising recent publications on the history of the Jehovah's Witnesses. As we shall see, although scholarship on this topic remains sparse, particularly given the organisation's visibility, since 2011 several important books have appeared alongside others which make contributions to the limited sum of our knowledge of the origins and emergence of the organisation and the way it has operated in different historical contexts. In short, the field requires reappraisal in light of these publications.

"Wielka rzeź Armagedonu". O czasach końca w publikacjach Towarzystwa Strażnica

"Wielka rzeź Armagedonu". O czasach końca w publikacjach Towarzystwa Strażnica

Perioperative Management of Patients Refusing Blood Products

Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) originated near Pittsburg (Pensylvania) in the 1870s, when Charles T. Russel formed a movement based on a literal millennialist interpretation of the Bible. However, it was until 1945 that the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (the legal organization of leaders of the Congregation of JW, usually known simply as the Watch Tower Society) concluded that blood transfusions are contrary to divine law. JW refuse transfusions of whole blood, of red and white corpuscles, platelets and plasma. They also refuse both natural and recombinant haemoglobin, although positions differ among them regarding blood-derived products such as albumin, immunoglobulin and coagulation factors

Conflicting expectations? Insider and outsider methods of studying Jehovah’s Witnesses

Using personal experience of a scholar’s editorial policy, the author discusses problems in researching the history of the Jehovah’s Witnesses that arise from the different positionalities of insider and outsider. Past research on new religious movements (NRMs) has tended to place the outsider-author in a privileged and superior position, often to the detriment of the NRMs under discussion. Drawing on W. Cantwell Smith and James L. Cox, the question of whether it is possible or desirable to privilege or accommodate the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ account is examined. It is argued that Jehovah’s Witnesses lack a tradition of scholarship, and place limited value on higher education; hence the Watch Tower Society’s methods of compiling its publications differ from those that are expected of scholarly material. In particular, the Society’s policies of author anonymity, the use of in-house archival material, the desire to provide spiritually sustaining publications, the need to endorse the Society’s doctrines, and the reticence to engage in debate with academic scholars, all militate against producing an insider’s account of Watch Tower history which is academically credible. It is concluded that the differences between the respective approaches of the Watch Tower Society and academic scholarship create serious problems in attempting to forge a dialogical relationship between insider and outsider in one’s research methodology.

Jehovah's Witnesses, endangered languages, and the globalized textual community

This article explores Jehovah's Witnesses' use of Oaxaca Chontal, an endangered language spoken in Mexico. The Witness religion is highly centralized and standardized: Witnesses obeyed instructions to use Chontal because these instructions bore the authority of the Watch Tower Society institution. This article proposes the concept of the globalizing textual community, which synthesizes understandings of community from throughout social science literature, in order to explain how religious identity can supersede national, ethnic, and linguistic identities. A central mechanism of this community is the discourse of the “pure language,” which renders language choice irrelevant even as it provides a warrant for extensive translation.

Jehovah's Witnesses as Un-Americans? Scriptural Injunctions, Civil Liberties, and Patriotism

In the United States, the steadfast refusal of the Jehovah's Witnesses to perform some of the most basic rituals of citizenship has led champions of Americanism to cast them as unpatriotic and even seditious. The Watch Tower Society, the corporate body of the Witnesses, has responded to these accusations by presenting Witnesses as upstanding citizens, only ever departing from the letter of the law when there is a conflict between secular legal directive and scriptural injunction. This essay argues that the gulf between the popular perception of the Witnesses as poor citizens, particularly during the middle decades of the twentieth century, and the society's own representation of its members as assets to their communities highlights the contested and mutable nature of the label un-American. Furthermore, it argues that there is a paradox in the place of the Jehovah's Witnesses in modern American history: though operating beyond the pale of understood norms of citizenship, they have been fundamental to shaping the First Amendment freedoms enjoyed by all citizens. It seeks to contribute to two largely unwritten histories, namely the place of the Witnesses in American religious history, and the ever-changing yet resolutely politicized concept of the un-American.

Witnessing in Black: Jehovah's Witnesses, Textual Ethnogenesis, Racial Subjectivity, and the Foundational Politics of Theocracy

This article attempts to show how the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses), has systematically worked to construct an anti-racial religious identity, through a multi-decade campaign against ethnic and national affiliation. Through a close analysis of Watchtower periodicals, pamphlets, and polemical literature, this work considers the ways that the Society has narrated specific historical examples of race-based political projects, to argue for a supra-statal, theocratic ethnicity that draws upon the aesthetic, cultural, and political sensibilities of predominately White, exclusively American male, leadership. For Witnesses, the legacy of the holocaust continues to loom large in Watchtower positions on race and nation. Given this legacy, I argue that the ideological work that occurred in the aftermath of the Second World War created new possibilities for the articulation of race politics that curtailed many meaningful opportunities for a truly multi-ethnic, multi-racial Watchtower Society. This was one where the expression and performance of cultural difference could be seen as a constructive rather than destructive constituent of one's religious identity. Ultimately, I demonstrate that the Watchtower Society is interested in its own form of nation-building, and that this political project requires the consistent delegitimization of all other national formations.

The variation of acceptable blood products and procedures amongst Jehovah’s Witness patients: analysis of a hospital pre-transfusion discussion tool

To the Editor, Jehovah’s Witness (JW) patients who may require blood transfusions during their treatment pose a unique set of challenges to health care practitioners. Until 2004, most JWs did not accept transfusion of blood or its major components. At this time, the Watchtower Society, the governing council of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, updated its stance on transfusion and rendered the administration of fractionated blood products acceptable. Nevertheless, an outright ban on all blood components continued, and the ultimate decision was left to the discretion of the individual. Today, there is substantial variation amongst JW patients regarding acceptable products and procedures. Following Sunnybrook Hospital Research Ethics Board approval, we reviewed our institutions’ JW blood transfusion discussion tool (Figure; available as electronic supplementary material) to help us quantify this variability and prevent unintended inadvertent transfusions. The data gathered since the introduction of this discussion tool in early 2011 (Table) include information regarding 25 JW patients. Ten (40%) patients amongst our cohort were male. Only one patient (4%) agreed to receive packed red blood cells and platelets, and only two (8%) patients agreed to receive plasma. These results are not surprising given the continual ban on blood components. Then again, more than half of the JWs (52%) accepted some kind of fractionated product. Fifty-six percent agreed to fibrin sealants, and an even greater proportion accepted erythropoietin (76%) and recombinant clotting factors (88%). When asked about types of transfusion procedures, five (20%) JW patients agreed to utilize preoperative autologous blood donation (PAD), which contradicts the previous notion that PAD was not acceptable. Almost 80% of the JWs agreed to be involved in acute normovolemic hemodilution, cardiopulmonary bypass, hemodialysis, or plasmapheresis, if required. All respondents agreed to utilize intraoperative cell salvage, which strengthens the previous notion that JWs are more willing to accept procedures that have continuous extracorporeal circuits. Analysis by sex revealed that females accepted fractionated blood products only 36% of the time, whereas males accepted these products an average of 80% of the time (P = 0.04). Only three individuals of the patients screened received blood products, and one of them received only a fractionated product. Two of these individuals were transfused blood components on an emergent basis (prior to identifying their JW status and completing the screening form). After the initial event, both of these individuals indicated on the screening form that the products they received were not acceptable. An inadvertent transfusion in a JW patient, although lifesaving, can lead to major negative social ramifications for the individual involved, including religious ostracization. In our view, it is crucial that physicians present and explain all blood transfusion options to JW patients before a transfusion is necessary. This approach involves proper documentation at preoperative assessment prior to surgical admission and a systemic process to initiate discussions Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12630-012-9784-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Ecumenical with the Truth?

The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ stance towards ecumenical and interfaith dialogue is an uncompromising one, regarding all manifestations of religion outside the Society as ‘false religion’ and part of Babylon the Great. The article discusses the history of Watch Tower Society’s stance towards Roman Catholicism, and to the formation of the Evangelical Alliance in 1846. Under Rutherford’s leadership a new understanding of Christian apostasy and other faiths emerged, based on the Protestant writer Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylons. The second part of the article turns to the present-day dialogue movement, arguing that the key Christian ecumenical themes of baptism, eucharist and ministry, are of no concern to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Interfaith dialogue involves harmful associations, and ecumenical and interfaith worship run counter to the Witnesses’ ways of worshipping God. Finally, attention is given to Hans Küng’s global ethic, which the Watch Tower Society contrasts with its own ‘global solution’ to the world’s problems.

The Watch Tower Society and the End of the Cold War: Interpretations of the End-Times, Superpower Conflict, and the Changing Geo-Political Order

The Watch Tower Society and the End of the Cold War: Interpretations of the End-Times, Superpower Conflict, and the Changing Geo-Political Order

How Prophecy Succeeds

Leon Festinger’s notion of prophecy as prediction that is liable to failure has been widely accepted in religious studies. The author argues that this understanding of prophecy is not shared by biblical scholars or by the Watch Tower Society. The article explores in detail the various calculations that the Society has used in devising its views on the last days, and how these have changed over time. Four periods of development are identified: (1) the era of founder-leader Charles Taze Russell; (2) the early Rutherford period; (3) a changed chronological system in 1935; and (4) the Society’s present-day understanding. Discussion is given to the key dates of 1914, 1918, 1925 and 1975, and to the Society’s changed understanding of the ‘generation that would not pass’ until the fulfilment of prophecy. It is argued that, although there have been failures in prophetic speculation, the changing views and dates of the Jehovah’s Witnesses are more largely attributable to changed understandings of biblical chronology than to failed predictions. For the Jehovah’s Witnesses prophecy serves more as a way of discerning a divine plan in human history than a means to predicting the future.

Re: Teenage decision-making in the context of the Jehovah's Witness faith (again).

Re: Teenage decision-making in the context of the Jehovah's Witness faith (again).

Teenage Decision-Making Capacity

Teenage Decision-Making Capacity Ian Mitchell and Juliet Guichon To the Editor: We read with interest the case study in the November-December 2007 issue ("Old Enough," commentaries by Robert D. Orr and Debra Craig). The commentaries focus on whether a teenager named "Joy" is sufficiently mature that physicians should respect her blood transfusion refusal. The commentators consider only one issue: "Is Joy competent?" But even if she is, that is not the end of the story. While competence is essential in medical decision-making, so are two other requirements: voluntariness and the availability of full information. These three elements are equally necessary for a patient to have the capacity to accept or refuse proposed medical treatment. In 2006, we published in Paediatrics & Child Health on similar but real Canadian cases, with an unexpected outcome. The Watchtower Society wrote to the editors of that journal in an apparent attempt to prevent publication of what we had written. Fortunately, the journal editors exercised their independence and published our article. In the real cases that we reported, lawyers representing those attempting to care for the young patients presented evidence in court that the teenagers' decisions were not voluntary and that they were given incomplete or misleading medical information. In Jehovah's Witness cases, voluntariness can be compromised by the threat of losing family and friends. What the Watchtower Society now calls "disfellowshipping"—and previously termed "shunning"—is a reality in the lives of Jehovah's Witnesses. Teenagers know that their choice is between refusing blood transfusion or losing meaningful relationships with their family and friends. Is it any surprise that some refuse blood transfusion? Moreover, the information Jehovah's Witness patients receive about the risks and benefits of blood is likely to be misleading. In one of the legal cases we presented, the judge ruled that "incorrect information" had been given to the patient that took "away her ability to make an informed choice." Information provided about blood by the Watchtower Society can be illogical and inconsistent, as has been described at length by neurologist Osamu Muramoto in the Journal of Medical Ethics. A useful Web site created and maintained by the Associated Jehovah's Witnesses for Reform on Blood, http://ajwrb.org, lists numerous policy contradictions. These include the puzzling fact that the Watchtower Society does not permit whole blood transfusions, but does now allow hemoglobin and blood fractions such as Factor VIII. We recommend that pediatricians give families this Web address to enhance their knowledge. The case summary and commentaries would have been more instructive if they had contained details of the family's context. More helpful than a focus on patient maturity would be ethical discussion of how to promote a young patient's autonomy in a context of constrained voluntariness and poor information. We are surprised that aberrant cases involving Jehovah's Witnesses are ubiquitous in ethical discussions of the capacity of teenagers to make medical decisions for themselves. Focusing on the aberrant does not necessarily advance understanding of the norm. Perhaps it is time for some realism to be inserted into bioethics reports concerning the Watchtower Society. For example, Orr's comment begins "All adult Jehovah's Witnesses refuse whole blood, packed red blood cells, white cells, platelets, and plasma." Would a commentary on adolescent use of contraception begin "All adult Roman Catholics refuse artificial contraception"? Perhaps it is also time for ethicists discussing teenage maturity to use more representative cases, uncolored by coercion and misleading information. Nevertheless, we are encouraged by Debra Craig's conclusion: "I remain unconvinced that an adolescent's decision to die should outweigh society's compelling interest in keeping her alive." Ian Mitchell Juliet Guichon University of Calgary Ian Mitchell and Juliet Guichon University of Calgary Robert D. Orr replies Ian Mitchell and Juliet Guichon are correct that capacity, voluntariness, and adequacy of information are all pertinent in cases of the sort discussed in my commentary, but they incorrectly state that my commentary focused only on competence, when in fact more than a third of my text addressed the issues of voluntariness and adequacy of information. Perhaps they thought this was one of the "aberrant" theoretical cases they criticize. They say that...

Awakening of a Jehovah's Witness: Escape from the Watchtower Society.

Awakening of a Jehovah's Witness: Escape from the Watchtower Society.

Jehovah’s Witnesses in the emergency department: what are their rights?

The Jehovah’s Witnesses Society is best known to outsiders for its refusal of blood products, even when such a refusal may result in death. Since the introduction of the blood...